Share this:

Disneyland visitors, most of them adults, gather to watch the “Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular” fireworks show at Disneyland on the first day of Pixar Fest in Anaheim on Thursday, Apr 12, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

When you run the busiest theme park in California and you’ve got 30,000 employees, keeping the place fully staffed isn’t easy.

So it should come as no surprise that Disneyland Resort is bulking up its hiring. It held a culinary job fair Monday for its two theme parks, three hotels and the Downtown Disney District. Two more events are scheduled in May to bring on more employees in housekeeping, laundry services and a variety of other roles.

Disney declined to reveal how many positions it’s looking to fill.

The company is Orange County’s largest employer and maintaining the staffing levels needed to keep the operation up and running is a full-time job, according to Disney spokeswoman Melissa Britt.

“It’s ongoing,” Britt said. “We used to do hiring pushes, but now it’s a pretty much a regular practice. That’s why we encourage people to go to disneycareers.com to see what openings we might have. Some of the people who come to our job fairs are hired on the spot.”

Candidates who attended Monday’s job fair were encouraged to apply online, then bring a hard-copy of their resume to the event. Job seekers met with chefs working at the resort and learned more about what it takes to excel in the resort’s culinary roles.

Part-time openings are available for a variety of positions, including beverage cashier, pastry head baker/cake decorator and food and beverage food prep. Full-time positions include fine dining line cook, fine dining specialty cook and banquet pantry cook.

Another job fair will be held from 9 a.m. to noon May 3 at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel to hire rides operators, sales clerks, guest relations staff and additional hotel jobs. A third housekeeping/laundry hiring event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 16 at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.

Disney didn’t provide information on how much the various jobs pay, but figures from CareerBliss.com reveal Disneyland cashiers earn an average of $18,000 a year. Guest information service representatives also average $18,000 a year, ride operators average $19,000 and customer service representatives earn about $24,000 annually. Those rates vary depending on an employee’s experience.

Disneyland is often touted as “the happiest place on earth,” but some of its workers are anything but happy.

Park workers in California and Florida filed complaints in February with the National Labor Relations Board over the company’s decision to withhold a promised $1,000 bonus during contract negotiations. The one-time bonus for 125,000 Disney workers was announced in January, with the company attributing it to the corporate tax cut law signed by President Donald Trump in December.

A coalition of 11 Disneyland unions also is calling on the resort to raise its base wage to $18 an hour after a union-funded survey of 5,000 workers found many were struggling to pay for food and medical expenses, and 11 percent said they experienced homelessness in the past two years.

Walt Disney Co. reported net income of $4.4 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2018. Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chairman and CEO, expressed confidence in the direction the company has taken in recent months and the changes that lie ahead, including new investments in its theme parks.

“The strategic investments we’ve made have driven meaningful growth over the long term, and we remain confident in our ability to continue to deliver significant shareholder value,” Iger said in a recent statement.

Iger stands to make about $423 million over the next four years if a deal to buy assets from 21st Century Fox is goes through, Reuters reported.

Kevin Smith handles business news and editing for the Southern California News Group, which includes 11 newspapers, websites and social media channels. He covers everything from employment, technology and housing to retail, corporate mergers and business-based apps. Kevin often writes stories that highlight the local impact of trends occurring nationwide. And the focus is always to shed light on why those issues matter to readers in Southern California.